Exhibiting a few frames of my life

Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

I am a die-hard egg lover and I really relished this food habit of mine to the max while I was in New Jersey last February. I was putting up in Hilton Woodbridge which was nearby to my office. My routine there was to wake up in the morning at around 7 am and get freshened by the next half an hour and talk to my family members back home in the next half an hour. At 8 O’ clock, I headed towards the hotel cafeteria for the breakfast buffet. It was an assorted breakfast buffet containing most of my favorite edible stuffs. The center of attraction for me was the cheese omlette, which was prepared in front of me. I had to identify and order the ingredients, such as sausages, salami, bacon, ham, mushroom, onions, etc. as per my requirements in the omlette. Next, lot of cheese is added on it to make it mouth watery and irresistible. Most of the mornings in New Jersey I enjoyed this special omlette for my breakfast.

It’s been quite a while since I returned from New Jersey and I hadn’t had my favorite cheese omlette since then, till yesterday morning. It was a Sunday morning and when I woke up, my wife and sister were still enjoying their sleep. So, I didn’t disturbed them and decided to cook something myself for the breakfast. We have eggs always available in our fridge, added to that, you’ll find, Salami, cheese, and butter readily available. Seeing these stuffs in fridge, immediately the thought of having cheese omlette came to my mind. So, without wasting a moment I cooked three cheese omlette within 20 minutes. Being an egg lover, I really enjoyed omlette. However, when my wife today called me in office and asked me its recipe, I realized that it was actually good. So, I decided to share this tasty recipe with all you guys visiting my blog (though the number is still very less) in order to give you all a taste of mine. The recipe is what I’ve seen and assumed in Hilton cafeteria plus my own special touch. So, here it goes:

You need two fresh brown eggs (If I am cooking for myself, I’ll take at least three eggs, and brown eggs taste really taste yummy.

A couple of Salami slices

One or two slices of cheese

One teaspoon of oil (I prefer soya oil, however, you can use any edible oil)

Salt to taste (Black salt is preferable for taste)

Black pepper

You can add any other thing if you wish (options are chopped onions, tomato, mushroom, etc.)

The cooking process:

Break the eggs in a bowl and add quarter teaspoon of salt and half of quarter teaspoon of pepper (it may vary as per your taste) into it. Then thoroughly beat the eggs to mix with salt and pepper. Next, preheat one teaspoon of oil in a small round pan in medium heat. Small pan is preferable as to maintain the shape of the omlette. Meanwhile, chop the salami slices into small pieces and pour them onto the preheated oil on the pan. Next, allow the Salami to cook for two minutes, occasionally stirring with a wooden ladle. During this time, chop your cheese slice(s) into small square-sized pieces. After the Salami gets moderately cooked, add the egg mix onto it in such a way to form a round shape. You can spread the salami pieces a little bit in the pan to cover more space. Cook in moderate heat for around 3 to 4 minutes. Check if your omlette gets thicker or not. As it gets thicker, add the chopped cheese pieces onto the center of the omlette and then fold its sides to cover the cheese. Allow to cook it for one more minute in moderate heat. Then reverse the omlette and cook it for another one or half minute. Then reverse the omlette and your finger luscious cheese omlette is ready. I hope you will like it as much as I love it.

The day before yesterday was my wife’s birthday. I promised my wife before her birthday that I’d not allow her to cook anything on her birthday. The cooking department would be mine on that special occasion. Though we’d invited only a few of our friends, I was a bit confused regarding what to cook. It’s not like that I don’t cook. Both me and my wife cook regularly at home. I like to cook plain, simple and fast, while my wife likes to go for organized cooking and try her hands on new things.

But on this occasion, I was hoping to do something special for her. So, that’s why I was a bit confused over what to cook. I bought dressed chicken as usual apart from mushrooms, paneer, and some other vegetables. I was clear about cooking chicken curry. The difficult part was the recipe. With chicken, my most common stint was to prepare plain chicken curry with Indian spices. Sometimes I would go for a little bit of gravy, while some other times I would like to go with dry fry. But on her birthday I wanted to do something different, something new. So, ultimately I decided to cook chicken with Worcester sauce and fish sauce, which we bought the previous night.

So, my first dish for her birthday was chicken cooked in Worcester and fish sauce. I’s a bit scared at first, because I’d never cooked anything using these two sauces before. But hoping for the best, I cooked the chicken. I didn’t used any other spices like, turmeric, cumin, or chicken masala. The only things apart from the sauces I used a little bit of black pepper and some fresh coriander. I must admit that while cooking I was a bit inspired by the movie “Julie and Julia” that I watched with my wife. It’s a very good movie, but we’ll talk about the movie some other time. In half an hour I cooked the chicken and I think I was satisfied with the smell coming from it. I was sure that it might not be of great taste but it wouldn’t be that bad either. SO, after cooking the chicken, I’s off to my next dish of the day – mushroom with soybean (Nutrela).

The night before Yasmin’s birthday, she cooked mushroom with soyabean and it was awesome. So, I’ve decided to try my hand on that. So, first I soaked the soyabean in water and in the mean time I sliced the mushrooms so that they won’t take much time to cook. After few minutes, I squeezed the soaked soys to empty the water. Then I sliced them too. Thereafter, it takes very less time to cook them in mustard oil with a bit pepper and coriander. But while cooking I was checking carefully that the mushrooms as well as the soys didn’t get overcooked. So, my second dish was ready and I felt a kind of satisfaction to try another new thing.

My third dish was also a new one for me. It was paneer cooked with tomato and spring onions. While I’s let the mushroom and soy to cook, I chopped the spring onions and tomatoes for my third dish. Also, I cut the paneer in square-sized pieces. I’m not too fond of paneer, but one my wife’s friend was vegetarian. So, I’d decided to keep multiple options for her. For my third dish, I first fried the spring onion and the tomato in hot oil for some time. I’ve also added some solid cumin. After 5-7 minutes, when the combination seemed to be half cooked. I added the paneer to it. Then it took only few minutes and my third dish was ready. It was really fast. Don’t you think? 🙂

Then, I saw some chopped potato in the kitchen, which I got chopped earlier by Chandan for the chicken. But while cooking the chicken, I didn’t feel like including the potato. It’s like ruining the new thing I was trying. Then Yasmin suggested me that I can cook the potato with mustard sauce, which will be a very good delicacy. Then in no time I was ready to cook my fourth dish of the day. It was the simplest of all the four dishes that I cooked that day. I just heated the oil and then add some cumin and black pepper in it. Then I added the chopped potato and fried it for 10 minutes. When the potato got cooked, I added a teaspoon of mustard sauce in it and cooked it for another minute and my fourth dish was ready.

So, I was ready with my four dishes along with the plain daal that I cooked before cooking all these four dishes. I must admit that I haven’t cooked such a variety of dishes in a single day. However, I felt a kind of satisfaction for being able to make all the things. May be the dishes are not of great taste, but I was happy that I had done something special for my wife on a special day of hers. That’s the most satisfying part.